Improve on Disclosure of Fiscal Information – Policy Alert Tells Government of Niger Delta States
By Ekemini Simon
Policy Alert, a Civil Society Organisation promoting fiscal and ecological justice in the Niger Delta has called on State governments in the Niger Delta to be more responsive in the disclosure of fiscal information.
The organisation says when citizens have information in their hands, they can get more meaningfully involved in governance processes and become more able to demand accountable spending of public resources and improved service delivery at the sub-national level.
Policy Alert made this known in a statement to mark the 2022 edition of the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) otherwise known as the International Right to Know Day commemorated on Wednesday, September 28, 2022.
According to the statement signed by the Organisation’s Programme Officer for Governance Reforms and Anti-Corruption, Faith Paulinus, the nine States of the Niger Delta only made minimal disclosure of its fiscal information in 2021.
The statement noted: “In 2021, the nine states of the Niger Delta received actual revenue of N2.112 trillion from both statutory and internal sources. These huge revenue inflows impose certain information obligations on state government institutions. However, beyond minimal disclosure obligations that have been incentivized by donor-supported reforms, such as the ongoing World-Bank supported States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability – Program-for-Results (PforR), many of these states are not providing meaningful access to information, whether proactively or on request.
Policy Alert noted that although the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was enacted in 2011, many government agencies across the Niger Delta states continue to ignore or out-rightly refuse to honour FOI requests, despite a number of court rulings affirming its application at the state level.
The organisation called on state actors in the region to be more responsive to FOI requests and to more proactively provide public information, especially information related to public finance management, on government websites.